All Good Things Come Between The Missions
by Nachtgeschichte
Summary: Penguins and their 'idyllic' life when they are not on full alert. Drabblish style. Not meant to be a slash but you can interpret it as you want. Reach the Telephone part two - Kowalski and Rico.
1. Of Monsters and Penguins

**Of Monsters and Penguins**

On the rainy and windy days no one wanted to stay outside an wave to the visitors. All the animals in the zoo tried to hide and find a warm place. Penguins' base provided it all but when there was nothing interesting (and fluffy) on the telly some penguins, is this case just one, young and cute, was bored to the death:

"K'walski?"

"Yes, Private?"

"Are you very busy?"

"I'm carrying out how many selenium I will need to-"

"Why is Jiggles square?"

"Huh? I, well...it's the result of many experiments..."

"You just wasn't creative enough to give it a nice shape."

"I'm an inventor, Private. I must be creative."

"Prove it."

"How?"

"Dunno. You're the genius."

Kowalski sighed and took out few sheets of paper and two pencils. "Alright, we'll play a game. Drawing monsters. I'll draw the head and fold the paper so you'll see the two lines of its neck. You'll maintain and create the body and I'll finish it by adding the legs and tail. We won't know what the other has drawn until we unfold it. Clear?" "Yay!", Private clasped his flippers.

They created the most imaginary monsters the world could see. Later they tried to come up with the names so they would suit the creatures. And as they finished, Private decided to give them some colours. He knew that Kowalski was creative but would never think that the scientist was so much fun.

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A/N: One of my childhood games. I like to think about Kowalski and Private's relation as older and younger brothers. Maybe I'll work on more stories like this one.


	2. Little of Your Time

A/N: References to the episode _Endangerous Species_. It's advisable to watch the episode before reading this chapter.

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**Little of Your Time**

At an ungodly hour which definitely is 6 a.m the penguins' leader was already on his feet. Not that he was awake. His mind was somewhere between the beautiful dreamland and the nightmare of reality. His lieutenant caught him snoring next to the coffee machine.

"Morning Skipper."

"Nah, Kowalski..."

"Do you have some spare time? I must report you something important."

"Shoot."

"Well, it's about the Raphus cucullatus. It was his time to go...now officially the species has died out for good."

"Did he lose to the stuffed dodo and exploded?"

"No, sir. Living creatures are obligated to answer the call of nature."

"Say what?"

"They need to eat and drink, for instance!"

"Oh...guess the museum wasn't such a good idea of yours after all, soldier."

"Idea of mine? Skipper, you came up with it!"

"But you gave me a hint!"

"Unconsciously! Besides, it wasn't his period...temporary danger doesn't go along with past adventurers."

"Really Kowalski? Philosophy at quarter past six? Is it the right time?"

"During the daytime we don't have much opportunities to chat."

"What a shame." Skipper retorted.

Kowalski frowned and turned around to leave the base. He didn't tell his boss that the coffee maker was not even plugged in. "Skipper will notice it in his time."


	3. Head of the Tiger - part 1

Another true story changed into PoM universe. Thanks for faving and reviewing, you guys are great :)

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**Head of the tiger - part 1**

With Skipper on a solo mission, Kowalski, as the one in charge, had decided that the team would go get some snow cones in the park. At the moment Rico was suffering brain freeze because he had eaten his portion too fast, Kowalski was daydreaming on the bench and Private was sitting between them, taking in the peaceful surroundings. The Brit kept asking the scientist every 10 minutes if Skipper was fine and whether everything would be alright or not.

"Skipper can take care of himself, everything will be okay." Kowalski recited, his patience on the verge of collapsing. He couldn't say that he wasn't worried, because he was, but panic wouldn't bring them anywhere, although he was a master of panic situations.

Private nodded and sighed, wishing that their leader would be already back. He knew that it would result in danger, training and dangerous missions but he didn't care as long as Skipper would be there. The small penguin sighed again and looked around, noticing something in the mud. "What is it?", he asked coming closer to the round orange object covered in dirt. "It's a plushie! It's head...but still a plushie. Guys! Come over here!"

At first Kowalski wanted to reply that he couldn't care less but hitting the conclusion that maybe they did need a distraction to not think about Skipper, he went down from the bench. "It's a head of a stuffed tiger. What do you want to do with it, Private?"

"Take home of course and fix it so it will have the rest of its body...wait here, I'll go get a stick to take it out from there." Private rushed towards the trees.

Kowalski shook his head at that since there was a better option how to take the head out. "Rico, if you please."

"Oh, yeah!" The weapon expert jumped into the mud and handed the head to the scientist. The tall penguin waddled towards the pond to clean it a little. "It will need a heavy washing in the H.Q."

Coming back with the stick, instead of the head of the tiger, Private saw a dirty Rico, enjoying his 'mud bath'.

"Looks like not only the head will need a heavy washing." Kowalski commented, chuckling.


	4. Head of the Tiger - part 2

Turned out long but I'm quite satisfied with this story and there will be probably part 3 but not in this fanfic ;)

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**Head of the Tiger - part 2**

Back in the H.Q, Kowalski was finishing to dry the head of the stuffed tiger with a hairdryer, wondering why he hadn't installed a UV laser in the device yet. Earlier the plushie part had a meeting with the washing machine. The scientist sighed, he could have already got down to his lab work but noticing Private's happy beak, he carried on. During that time, the Brit threw down a whole bunch of cloth on the table – striped, dotted, in every possible colour and started to pick just those pieces which were vivid, like: pink, yellow and lime, putting aside black, brown and grey ones. He had been gathering them, because he wanted to learn how to sew.

"Alright, Private. I'm done with the drying, what now?"

"Ugh...do you have any options?"

"First we need to sew the cloth in such a way that we will get four limbs, a torso and a tail. Then we will fill it with a soft material and combine the parts, including the head, to create one body."

"Brilliant, so...we need a needle and thread..."  
"Rico..." Kowalski turned to the weapon expert who, after a second, choked up a big needle and black thread. Seeing it, Private felt dizzy and held on his beak, he didn't know how the penguin was able to keep a needle in his stomach, not to mention bringing it up. Shivers went down Kowalski's spine, even thought he should have got used to the content of Rico's abdomen. He didn't feel like holding the needle in his flipper. "Rico...ugh...haven't you ever wanted to try your hand at sewing?"

Rico just shrugged and threaded the needle, starting his task.

"And with what will we fill it?" Kowalski looked around but neither in his lab, nor in the living room could he find anything soft enough. Rico shook his head which meant that he was 'empty' in that case.

Then Private waddled towards the bunks and took Skipper's pillow. "How about that?"

"What?!" Kowalski and Rico asked simultaneously.  
"Oh, come 'on. We will find a new one somewhere later. It will be there before Skippah comes back. It's not his mug, he won't see any difference. I want to be ready with it already!" And with that the small penguin threw the pillow at the taller one's face. Kowalski ripped it open "Alea iacta est."

After an hour the complete tiger was sitting on the table. It had its previous head; a big torso, white on the front and with a rose pattern on its back; small green, pink, yellow and light blue limbs; and finally a long tail with red and white polka dots. "Salvador Dali would be impressed..." Kowalski commented sarcastically.

"Who?" Private looked from the plushie up to Kowalski. Anything but to see how Rico was gulping the needle back.

"An artist...anyway, now you can play with your new toy, Private."

"Actually...I thought that..." The Brit made a pause, took the tiger from the table and handed it to Kowalski, "Rico has Miss Perky, I have the Lunacorn...could you take care of him, Kowalski?"

The scientist looked down on the not-so-pretty-oh-my-burning-eyes thing. It was made from Private's heart, Rico's ability to create something from nothing and even Skipper took part in it, absent in body, present in soul. "I'll, thank you." Kowalski smiled, accepting the gift.


	5. Reach The Telephone

A/N: Mentioned: Happy Pets, Robot Unicorn Attack and YouTube. Kowalski's Smartphone from _Thumb Drive._

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**Reach the Telephone**

0913 hours, Penguin Headquarters 

"K'walski I would like to feed my unicorn, please..."

"It's just morning. Can't you do that later? I need to check the news, emails and feeds first."

"But he got hungry over the night!"

"It's just a code!" Kowalski replied impatiently.

"Skippah! K'walski is not letting me feed my unicorn." The Brit waddled up to the leader.

"Oh, humor the private, Kowalski."

"Nah...good thing I haven't shown you the robot unicorn..." Kowalski mumbled while handing his Smartphone to the younger penguin.

"A robot...unicorn?"

"Father of the Internet...what I have done..." The scientist faceflippered.

Private used puppy eyes. Kowalski blocked it. Private used cuteness. It's super effective! "Fine, first take care of the pixel horse and I'll introduce you to the other game..."

"Yay!"

1005 hours, Penguin Headquarters...still 

"Wow, it makes a rainbow! Did you see it, K'walski?"

"X! Private, X! Dash it!"

"But you said I should press Z..."

"For jumping!"

"The unicorn lost its head." The small penguin started to wail. "I killed it!"

"Give me that, I'll try." Kowalski took the phone.

"You killed it too!"

"The dolphin at the bottom distracted me!"

"Nuu..." Private started to rock back and forth.

"I'm sorry, Private...I'll find a better game for you." Kowalski patted him while Rico caught the phone.  
"Kaboom!"

"What? Put that down, Rico!"

"Na-ah. Kaboom!" The weapon expert logged into YouTube and was searching for all possible videos with explosions. "Hehe, dormartoz." (amateurs)

1432 hours, streets of New York City

"Kowalski! Prove that this doojigger is useful and control the route of the fish van and the situation of the traffic jam. We have to know when the driver is sneezing."

"On it Skipper. Ah!"

"What is it, soldier?"

"We're in a tunnel. I lost the signal!"

"Kowalski..." Skipper faceflippered.

"No worries...I...ah..."

"What now?"

"Skippah...ugh...K'walski and the phone /left/ the vehicle..."

"Rama!" (The van) Rico shouted.

"After him!"

"The van?"

"No, after Kowalski!"

1809 hours, Central Park Zoo

"Good that we won back your phone K'walski from the rats'...hands?"

"Dirty paws, Private. It feels good to beat some ratty butts. But still, we lost the van and it's your fault Kowalski."

"Apologies Skipper..."  
"No apologies, just start doing the extra training~"

1919 hours, Penguin Headquarters 

"Finally I can listen to all the scientific interviews and lectures in peace." Kowalski lied down in his bunk, putting the headphones on.

"Unicorn?"

"You fed him this morning!"

"But I need to breed him with the pink glowing one and I need to adopt a striped one. Just five minutes...please?"

"Fine!" Kowalski answered grumpily, climbing down from his bunk and going to his lab.

2150 hours, Penguin...home 

"Five minutes..." Kowalski rolled his eyes.

"K'walski. Your phone made a beep-beep sound and turned off..."

"Tales' tales! I need to charge the battery. No science for me...thanks Private."  
"Uh, welcome?"

"It's for your good Kowalski." Skipper smiled. "You're using it way too much anyway."


	6. Reach The Telephone - part 2

A/N: Mentioned game: Dream of The Blood Moon. The link to the game will be put in my DA journal.

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**At night, when penguins sleep...should sleep at least, weird ideas awake.**

There was a silent sound of steps and a bit louder clank of unplugged phone. Kowalski's device was charged and ready to use. However, it wasn't its owner who turned it on.

"Rico!" Kowalski stood in front of the weapon expert with his flippers on hips, glaring. "You haven't even-"

"Shhhh!" The psycho penguin caught Kowalski's beak. He didn't want the others, especially Skipper, to wake up. The leader wouldn't be pleased either.

The scientist struggled to free himself from Rico's steel grip but being obviously weaker he just gave in. Rico freed his friend after a while and maintained to play on the phone.  
"Rico." This time Kowalski whispered. "What are you doing?"

"Phara e sgwar wa." (Playing a horror game.)

"Ugh...since you're not willing to give me the phone back...can I watch?"

"Haba!" (Sure!)

Kowalski sat next to the gamer, wondering what horror game could interest Rico so much. "Scenery like from the horror movie 'The Mist'. Is it based on it?"

"Nu-ah. Shhh..." (Nope.)

Kowalski was silent for few minutes, getting more and more into the game as if he was the one playing it. "What are the red lights for? Kepler's scope! What the heck is that?!"

"SHHHHH..."

"It's after you! Kill it!"

"Nu-ah mog! Tah bigha" (I can't, just run.)

"You're playing a game where you're not able to eliminate the foe?! You amaze me, Rico..." Rico chuckled and ran away from the creature.  
"Pfuh...the lights are gone but say...did I see right? Is it a woman in a kimono who tries to prevent us from collecting the tears in order to free the girl from the tree?"

Rico just shrugged to that. He didn't care about the background story, wanting only to get the mission done. They were silent for a moment, sharing the headphones with the scary music which gave Kowalski shivers.

"'Walski?" Rico looked at the scientist and then back at the screen. He was stuck and hoped that the smart penguin would help him out.

"Uhm…try to extinguish the fire."

"Ohkay" Doing as said, Rico collected the next tear and made his character turn around, standing eye-to-eye with Her. He wasn't sure what scared him more: the creature or Kowalski's reaction. The scientist gave a muffled scream and hid behind Rico's shoulder, not looking at the phone anymore.

It was the first time when She caught them. The second time was in a maze and the third – by the tree with the girl. Kowalski peeked only twice. Too see the bloody mist and to witness the end. When he thought that it was over and it was all the character's dream – She appeared next to the character's bed. The penguin screamed again, this time it woke Skipper and Privet up.

"Get the arms, I start the car!" The commanding officer jumped out of his bunk just to see Kowalski clinging to Rico. His alarm position changed into irritation. "I don't know what you two are doing but I don't want to hear a squeak until dawn, do you understand?" The two penguin nodded. "Oh and one more thing, you're banned from games!"

"Does that mean that I can play with the unicorns?"

"Yes Privet, the phone will be all yours in the morning."

"Yay!"

Kowalski glared at Rico. "Why did I even watch you playing in the first place?"

Rico shrugged, he just wanted to get the mission done.


End file.
